Just a Glimpse
by shindi
Summary: Matt gets a glimpse of what life is like with and without Emily. Post Kids in the Hall.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Unfortunately, I don't own standoff. If I did, Standoff would have definitely been renewed for another season.

**Author's note:**kind of an unusual fic but please give it a chance. I've got this story planned out in 3 chapters, hopefully you all like it. I love reviews and feedback is definitely welcome!

**Just a glimpse**

Matt slammed his front door shut and made his way to the fridge where he pulled out a beer, his third for the night, to reward himself for getting through the day. Working with Emily since their break up had been incredible difficult but being without her at home was even worse. Matt had been hanging out at Sloan's, avoiding the topic of Emily until Duff mentioned that he heard through Lia, that one of Emily's close friends set her up on a blind date that night with some guy named Pete. Her friend absolutely was insistent about getting her back into dating game. And Matt's heart broke into two when Duff shared the news; they had only broken up five days ago. So there Matt was, in the dark, sitting on his couch with his beer in hand, at 9 o'clock at night wondering whether he had the guts to tell Emily how he really feels.

Matt woke with his head pounding. He closed his eyes are rolled over, silently cursing the killer of a headache that made him feel completely ill. The funny thing was he never had a hangover like this from just a few beers.

"Good Morning" an overly chirpy voice greeted him causing him to flinch. Matt opened his eyes to find a blonde women lying next to him, who had obviously slept with last night.

"Uh, morning……um…er.. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name" Matt said cautiously.

"Yeah, that happens a lot when you drink tequila like it's water. I'm Miranda."

"Hi, I'm Matt" he replied, followed a brief moment of awkward silence.

"So I'm gonna go. I'll leave my number incase you wanna do what we did again some time. Bye" Miranda said before she clumsily put her clothes on before leaving the room. Matt cursed to himself again and knew he would be throwing that number out.

After putting some clothes on, he wondered through out his house, some how things had changed. The picture he once had of him and Emily had been replaced with a picture of him and a few of the guys from HRT getting drunk off their faces. The phone began ringing and as soon as he answered he was greeted with the voice of Frank.

"Flannery" Matt answered gruffly.

"Good Morning sunshine" Frank greeted. "How's that lovely lady that you picked up last night."

"She left." He answered abruptly. "Frank how could you let me go home completely drunk with some strange woman especially when I messed things up with Emily so badly."

"Woah, it's been awhile since I've heard you slip out that name. Guess you had a bit too much to drink last night. You okay?"

"Fine. It's been six days since we broke up and I'm a mess that's all" Matt replied.

"You sure you're okay. What year is it?" Frank asked.

"2007"

"Matt, it's 2012. You and Emily broke up 5 years ago. She doesn't work at CNU anymore. She and Pete got married and she quit after the twins came along. Does that ring any bells?"  
"Ah, yeah, of course" Matt said lying through his teeth.

"Good. Hopefully it's just the tequila in you that's still talking. Call me later to let me know you're okay. Alright?"

"Uh, yeah sure"

"Later Matt"

The combination of the news and his hang over was making his head spin. He needed to get away, to think things over. He grabbed his coat and walked out the door.

Some how he ended up at a park half and hour away from his house. It was Saturday morning and the park was already filled with people. Matt sat himself on a bench and began questioning whether he had gone nuts. Was this some sort of crazy dream or did he really get himself so drunk, he forgot the last five year. He realized that if it was the latter, he had wasted away the last five years of his life in what he assumed to be a series of one night stands. He turned and looked around that the people that were at the park, mainly families, a few couples and they were all happy people. This was something he had always wanted with Emily, but that was in the past too.

A child's balls rolled past him. Matt stopped the ball, picking it up and turned to look at the owner. A small toddler came running after the ball.

"scuse me, you have my ball" She stated.

"Yeah I do, here you go" Matt said bending down to her level.

"Natalie, what did I say about talking to strangers?" a familiar voice from behind asked. Matt turned his head and was greeted with the sight of Emily Lehman.

"Sorry, momma" Natalie replied softly. Matt still hadn't taken his eyes off Emily who was staring right back at him.

"Natalie, sweetie, why don't you go play with Daddy, Ryan and Rover. I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?" Emily said to her daughter. The little girl nodded, slowly toddling back to her father, twin brother and pet dog, while her mother watched. Matt made a mental note to stay away from Emily's family not only to avoid their dog but to also avoid meeting or re-meeting her husband.

"Hey Matt, sorry about that, Pete and I are trying to teach the twins about stranger danger"

"Oh, okay" Matt said quietly. He was staring at Emily's family, watching her two children and her husband play with their dog, where he was grateful to be at a distance. He felt a sad sinking feeling in his stomach and mentally kicked himself for being such an idiot five years ago.

"So how are things at CNU?" Emily asked curiously.

"Same old" He said praying his guess was correct. "How about you, what's life like for you now?"

"Completely different. I don't know if I ever told you this but it was hard at first when Pete asked me to give up negotiating but I guess it's worth it. It's great to spend time with the kids but it's stressful, not like negotiating stressful, but full time mommy stressful" She replied honestly.

"Yeah I can see that" he said still watching her family, in particular her son chasing their dog with a toy truck. "Do you miss negotiating?" he asked.

"Yeah I do but my family's my number one priority" Emily said before drifting into silence. She watched as Ryan smeared dirt all over Natalie while her husband was trying to keep hold of rover's leash and clean off the dirt off Natalie simultaneously. "I should get back, it was good seeing you Matt again"

"You too Em, Bye" Matt said sadly watching her walk away. He sat back down on the bench trying to absorb what had just happened. Emily was still as beautiful as ever on the inside and out, but she had changed so much. She seemed to be happy. He wanted to be the lucky one to marry her, to give her the life she has now, to put a smile on her face everyday, but it seems like he was too late.

Matt left soon after, walking back to his house and collapsing on the couch. "I am such an idiot' he muttered to himself wondering if he could ever fix it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **A special thank you to **tjmack** and **YellowTang** for reviewing. Hopefully this chapter will clear up a bit the confusion.

ooooo

Matt awoke with a start. His alarm clock read 2:27am. "It was only a dream" Matt told himself. His one night stand with a stranger did not happen. Emily wasn't playing family with a man who changed who she was. He was not living an unhappy life. Well not yet anyway. He rolled out of bed and triple checked the calendar to see if it was still 2007. Breathing a sigh of relief, Matt returned to bed. If there was one thing he knew, it was that he loved Emily more than anything in the world and he still had time to make things right. But nothing could be done at 2:27 in the morning. He closed his eyes hoping that his exhaustion from his sleepless nights would finally catch up with him and that his previous dream would not return.

ooooo

A whispered conversation woke Matt up.

"Mommy? Can I wake Daddy up?" the voice of a young girl asked.

"No sweetie, Daddy had a very busy day yesterday and we shouldn't be waking him up so early on a Saturday" Emily's voice replied. "Why don't you climb in and have a nap before Daddy and I get up" she continued. Matt felt the bed shift as the little girl wriggled under the blankets. Matt spent a few moments trying to process what was happening. He was curled up in bed with his back turned to Emily and the young girl. He told himself it was just another dream but he couldn't help but entertain the idea that he and Emily were happily married with a daughter.

A few minutes of silence, the little girl said "Mommy I can't sleep. Can I wake up Daddy?" Before Emily could reply, Matt rolled over whispering "no need to do that, I'm already wake."

"Daddy! Hurry up and get dressed. Mommy said we could go to the park, when you get up" the girl said excitedly. Matt carefully studied the girl. She had his dark hair but apart from that, she was all Emily. She had Em's cute nose and eyes. It seems she had also inherited Emily's smile, grinning at her father while she wriggled impatiently waiting for her father to get up, so they could all go to the park.

"Jody, honey, how about we think about breakfast before we think about going to the park? The baby and I are both hungry, and I know you're hungry too" Emily said rolling out of bed. Only then did Matt notice the small baby bump she had.

"Okay" Jody said reluctantly, climbing out of bed and leaving the room clutching her teddy bear.

"It's only seven o'clock in the morning" Emily tiredly moaned, sinking back into her bed. Matt greeted her good morning by kissing her deeply.

"It's only seven o'clock in the morning" he whispered cheerfully into her ear as he began kissing her neck.

"Mommy! Can we have breakfast now?" screamed Jody from the other room. Matt groaned as Emily replied with "use you inside voice honey", kissing Matt once more before climbing out of bed to deal with their daughter.

Matt wandered out of the bedroom. On the wall was a framed photo of him and Emily on their wedding day outside the church. They were staring into each other's eyes, leaning in for a kiss, happy in their own little world. Matt's face broke into a smile after laying eyes on that picture. Walking towards the mantelpiece, he found a series of photos. A picture of Jody and Emily at the beach, both covered in ice cream from the cone Jody had in her hand. A photo of a CNU get together, everybody pulling faces at the camera. One of Matt and Emily at their desks at work, Matt looking over Emily's shoulder, while Emily was doing paper work, a smile on her face.

"Daddy, I drew a picture for you" called Jody from the breakfast table.

"Thanks sweetie" he replied taking the picture from her and studying it carefully. She had drawn a picture of their family, including a small baby.

"That's the baby" Jody pointed out proudly. "How long until the baby gets here?" she asked.

"5 months, honey" Emily replied.

"Can you make it come sooner" she asked Matt excitedly.

"Sorry I can't. They baby will come when it's ready." Matt explained.

"Daddy… How did the baby get inside Mommy's tummy?" Jody curiously asked.

"hmm…well…ahh…Why don't we help Mommy in the kitchen?" Matt said moving to the kitchen. Emily had a smirk which she couldn't wipe off her face as a flustered Matt, looked at her desperately.

"Hey Em, why don't I finish making the pancakes while you talk to Jody" Matt suggested, quietly whispering it into her.

"No way, I wanna see you handle this one. I think it'll as good as the time you tried explaining to her why you freaked out at the sight of a Chihuahua" she said with a laugh.

"Can I have a juice?" Jody asked.

"Sure". Matt was surprised how easily he slipped into this fatherly mode. To him I just felt right, almost familiar. Halfway through breakfast, Jody recalled her unanswered question.

"Daddy, you didn't answer my question….How did the baby get inside Mommy's tummy" she asked persistently. Matt look over to Emily, his last ditch attempt to get himself out of a very tough situation.

"I'll let you take primary on this one" she said in a playful tone.

"You see sweetie because Mommy and Daddy love each other very much, we can make a baby" Matt began.

"What do you use to make a baby? Do you use play dough? And then you make Mommy eat it? Is that how it gets into Mommy's tummy? Mommy, you shouldn't eat play dough, it doesn't taste very nice." Jody said rambling on in all seriousness. It seemed that Matt was digging himself into bigger hole and the look on Emily's face told him she wouldn't be helping any time soon.

"We don't use play dough to make a baby. Mommy and Daddy make a baby by magic" Matt said, proud he came up with such a great answer, no kid can question the power of magic.

"I like magic, can I watch you and Mommy make another baby?" Jody asked innocently.

"No!" both Matt and Emily said abruptly.

"Jody, how about you finish your pancakes and then we'll go to the park" Emily said using her sugar coated voice, knowing that the mention of the word, park would get her to drop the subject. Matt leaned back into his chair looking completely exhausted. Who would have thought that a two minute conversation with his daughter would give him the exact same exhausted feeling as a ten hour negotiation. Emily gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and shot him a sympathetic smile while Jody dug into the remainder of her breakfast, oblivious to the amount of stress she had just caused for her parent.

After an adventurous day, visiting Aunty Lia and Uncle Duff, going to the park and getting some shopping done, tired little Jody had no problems falling asleep that night. Matt and Emily had settled into bed where his arms were wrapped protectively around Emily's stomach.

"Jody was full of questions today" Emily said musing to herself.

"You're telling me. Promise me next time these sorts of questions come up you'll help me"

"I promise. It could be worse though. Imagine when she comes home as a teen, ten years down the track, asking if she was an accident" Emily said with a laugh.

"Yeah and what will you tell her?" Matt asked.

"That she wasn't an accident, just unplanned and that make up sex is one of the best things in the world" Emily replied teasingly. It was then that Matt finally realized that Jody was conceived when they got back together. He did the mental maths. It was 2012 and Emily had mentioned that Jody's fourth birthday was coming up in two weeks, adding nine months and it hit him with full force.

"Emily Lehman-Flannery! You will never tell our daughter about make up sex!" Matt said with a laugh.

"Oh yeah, how are you gonna stop me?" Emily asked as she was attacked by kisses and tickles. Moments later after Emily had recovered from her tickle attack; Emily laid in Matt's arms in a comfortable silence.

"Hey Matt, I love you" Emily whispered.

"I love you too" he murmured back. It was that moment there that Matt felt complete and utter happiness as he drifted off to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **Sorry, I know it's been a while. I'm a week out from exams so things are a bit hectic. This is the last chapter, thanks for reading and reviewing, hope you all like it!

ooooo

Bright strong rays shone through the bedroom window. Ignoring the sun Matt reached over to Emily's side of the bed, wanting to wrap his arms around her. When he realized Emily was not in reaching distance he begrudgingly opened his eyes.

"Em? Jody?" he called, when he saw that Emily's side of the bed hadn't been slept in. Then it came rushing back to him. It was 2007, he loved Emily and wanted her in his life but he was stupid enough to let her go. She was what he defined as perfect, what he saw as happiness. Matt jumped out of bed making a beeline for his car, disregarding the fact that he was in his PJ's and that no sane person would be awake this early in the morning.

Once he reached his destination, Emily's place and rang the doorbell, pausing for a moment to think. It had been six days since they broke up. This time a week ago, he would have been waking up with Emily in his arms watching her sleep. He smiled at the thought of sleeping Emily's cute face. However, the grumbling from the other side of the door snapped him from his thoughts.

"It's seven freaking o'clock in the morning. This better be important!" he could hear her mutter, while she fiddled with the locks.

"It is" Matt replied as she opened the door.

"What do you want Matt?" Emily asked angrily. It was quite obvious Matt was not one of Emily's favorite people at the moment. Not only had they broken up days before, he had interrupted her Saturday morning, one of her very few Matt free days which she had been looking forward too. Although it seemed like Emily was angry, she was more hurt and upset. She spent all week hoping they would somehow resolve their problems. Most of her nights were restless; she tossed and turned, finding it difficult to sleep without Matt as her pillow. Her blind date with Pete hadn't gone so well last night. Although he seemed like a nice caring guy, he wasn't Matt. During their date, she had thought about Matt and picked at her food more than she spoke with Pete, leaving him quite happy to talk about himself for the whole night.

"We need to talk" Matt said softly.

"On a Saturday, at 7 am?!?!" she glared softly. In the past week, all that could come of their conversations was yelling and screaming. She thought today would be the first day where since they broke up where she could get away from each other's hurtful words. All she wanted to do was crawl back into bed and stuff herself with comfort food and wish she could go back to a week ago when she was happy.

"I love you, Em!" he blurted out before she almost closed the door on him. "I'm so sorry, I can't believe I let you go. I miss you so much. I hate that I'm so close to you every day and I can't touch you or sweep you up in my arms and tell you I love. I use your pillow now because it smells like your perfume. That's the closest thing I have to you now and that kills me. I can't sleep for more than a few hours before I wake up again and realise I'm living a nightmare. I miss you Em and I don't want to lose what we have." Matt continued. She stared at him for a moment, looking at the man on her door step. He stood there in his pajamas, the one with puppy dogs she had bought for him as a joke. He was wearing them at that moment when a month before he swore he would never wear anything with dogs on it. Small tears were forming in her eyes. She had missed him more than she had let on. Taking a small step forward, she kissed him with passion.

"I'm sorry too. God I missed you" she murmured. "Love the puppy dogs by the way" she whispered as they started tugging at each other's clothes on the way to the bedroom.

ooooo

**Five weeks later**

"Em? I'm home" Matt called, entering his house. Emily had left work early that day for a doctor's appointment; she had caught a bug during a negotiation the other day.

"Hey" she greeted him brightly.

"Hi, how was it at the doctors?" Matt asked rather concerned.

"It's all normal" she replied, "or as normal as it can be" she added silently.

"Good" he replied as she settled down on the couch. Two weeks earlier, Matt's dream about their family had been bugging him and he brought up the topic of marriage and children. They had both agreed that it was something they wanted in the future but they didn't know they were ready for that step. However the news that Emily had was about to change all that.

"Hey, Matt, do you remember that morning a few weeks ago when we go back together?" Emily asked slowly.

"Yeah, how could I forget?" he replied with a smile.

"Matt…..I'm pregnant" she said quietly like a scared child.

"But we used-" Matt said shocked before he was cut off.

"I know but it's not 100 effective" she said quietly. She had her own little cry when the doctor told she was pregnant but tears began fall from her eyes again.

"Come here Em" Matt said. She crawled onto his lap and quietly sobbed. Matt thought back to his dream about his future with Emily. She had mentioned Jody was conceived from their make up sex but never thought anything of it until now.

"Listen to me. We'll be okay. I love you so much and I love our baby that you're carrying. You two are the most important people in my life." He told her gently stroking her hair and wiping her tears away.

"I'm scared…" she trailed off.

"Me too but we'll get through it, we'll get through it together. You're gonna be an amazing mom. And in eight months time we'll have an amazing little baby girl in our arms" Matt said as Emily's tear streaked face gave a small smile.

"Wow... how do you know it'll be a girl?" she asked quietly, her head resting on Matt's shoulder.

"Daddy's intuition" Matt replied as they sat in silence, letting reality sink in.

"What do you think about the name Jody? I've always loved that name." Emily whispered a few minutes later.

"Jody" Matt repeated. With his hand on Emily's stomach, he could picture their little girl from his dream, the image of her dark hair with Emily's eyes and her bright smile was still floating around in his head. "Jody, Jody Flannery. I think it sounds perfect."


End file.
